Dahomey Amazons are the most formidable women in history

The Dahomey Amazons are a unique phenomenon in world history, as they are the only documented female military unit. This group of female "terminators", who lived south of the Sahara and terrified European colonizers, foreigners called Dahomey Amazons. And they called themselves N'Nonmiton, which means "our mothers".

Dahomey Amazons were considered elite troops in Kingdom of Dahomey (modern Republic of Benin). N'Nonmiton defended their king during the bloodiest battles and were untouchable. And their special "trick" was the decapitation of victims.

Amazons are not mythical characters at all. The last surviving Dahomey Amazon died quite recently, in 1979, at the age of 100. It was a woman named Navi, whom the researchers found living in a remote village. And in the XIX century, 6,000 female soldiers served in the Amazon corps (there were 25,000 people in the army, i.e. Amazons made up about a third of the entire Dahomey army).

Their history began in the XVII century. Scientists suggest that the Amazon corps was originally formed to hunt elephants. But the women managed to impress the King of Dahomey so much with their skills that the king wanted to see them as his bodyguards. Another theory suggests that since women were the only people allowed to stay in the king's palace after dark, it is not surprising that it was women who became the king's bodyguards.

The strongest, healthiest and bravest women were selected for N'Nonmiton. They then underwent a thorough training process, during which they turned into real killing machines, which were feared throughout Africa for more than two centuries.

The Amazons were armed with Dutch muskets and machetes. By the beginning of the XIX century, their corps had turned into a full-fledged military unit, completely devoted to its king. Girls in N'Nonmiton were recruited (and given weapons) starting at just eight years old. Some women in society became soldiers voluntarily, while others were given as bodyguards by husbands who complained about undisciplined wives whom they could not control.

From the very beginning, Amazons were taught to be strong, fast, ruthless and able to withstand great pain. The exercises, which resembled some kind of gymnastics, included jumping over walls covered with prickly acacia branches. The preparation also included expeditions into the jungle without equipment, with one machete, which lasted for 10 days. It is not surprising that in battle the Dahomey Amazons fought to the death... someone else's or their own.

N'Nonmiton women were not allowed to marry or have children while serving as soldiers. Moreover, it was believed that they were officially married to the king, but even the king did not dare to break their vow of chastity. And if any other man touched the Amazon, and not the king, then this meant certain death for him.

In the spring of 1863, British explorer Richard Burton arrived in West Africa to establish a British mission in coastal Dahomey, and also to try to make peace with the Dahomeyans.

The Dahomeyans were a warring nation that actively used slaves — they mainly turned captured enemies into prisoners. But most of all, Barton was struck by the elite Dahomey warriors: "These women had such a well-developed skeleton and muscles that only by the presence of breasts it was possible to determine gender."

Dutch rifles were the main weapons, and Dahomey Amazons used machetes to behead and dismember their victims. Among the Dahomeyans, it was then customary to return home with the heads and genitals of their opponents.

Despite the brutal training, for many women it was a chance to escape the boring life to which they were doomed in Dahomey society. Upon admission to N'Nonmiton, women had the opportunity to climb the social ladder of local society, take command posts and gain influence. They could even become rich, but this rarely happened.

Stanley Alpern, author of the only full-length treatise in English devoted to the study of the Amazons, wrote: "When the Amazons left the palace, a slave girl with a bell always walked in front of them. The ringing of the bell told every man to turn off his path, go some distance away and look the other way."

Even after the French, with the support of the Foreign Legion, conquered Dahomey in the 1890s, the reign of fear of the Amazons continued. French soldiers who stayed with Dahomey women overnight were often found dead in the morning, with their throats cut. Underestimating female opponents very often led to an increase in the number of victims among the French invaders.

By the end of the Second Franco-Dahomey War, the French began to win only after the support of the Foreign Legion. The last forces of the king surrendered, most of the Amazons were killed in 23 battles during the Second War. The legionnaires later wrote about the "incredible bravery and audacity" of the Amazons. They also claimed that the scariest women on earth live in this place.